WIND N YACHT CLUB’S SAILS
It is producing world beaters, membership is soaring and hope for dredging is on the horizon — the Southport Yacht Club reflects ahead of its 70th
THE Gold Coast’s only yacht club is looking forward to marking seven decades and celebrating its growing membership base. The Southport Yacht Club, which has been based at its Main Beach site since inception, turns 70 next Saturday with a members only daytime party including live music from Daryl Braithwaite.
The club has a proud history producing world-beating sailors from its junior ranks including 2012 Olympic gold medallist Mat Belcher, who won silver at the Rio Olympics last month.
Membership of the club is surging with numbers climbing from 2600 three years ago to 3500 today.
Southport Yacht Club marketing manager Bronwen Hemmings said she put the membership growth down to opening up as a family friendly venue.
“Having 3500 is really big for a yacht club. Membership has definitely been going up for the past three years,” she said.
“We are bringing a lot more families on board and youngers ones too. We need to bring the new ones through to bring them up the sailing ranks.”
Other high-profile club members who have shone on the world sailing stage also include Jack Sherring who, at age 17, won the 2012 Moth Junior World Championship.
A year ago, club members Kyle O’Connell and Tom Siganto teamed up to win the Zhik 29er World Championships in North Wales.
The top pairing beat 193 other entrants.
O’Connell and Siganto started with the Southport Yacht Club youth sailing division before being selected in the club’s elite High Performance Sailing Team.
Ahead of it’s 70th, the club is at a critical juncture with community debate raging about whether to dredge and deepen part of the Broadwater surrounding the club to create a dedicated sailing basin.
It would create much-needed depth for a sailing arena for the club which turns away at least 10 major sailing regattas a year, at significant cost to the Gold Coast economy.
The dedicated sailing arena would also help attract lucrative America’s Cup World Series racing and potentially result in the Gold Coast becoming a long-term fixture as part of the globetrotting series.
A potential landmine for the costly dredging work is the recent decision by the state government to name six sandbanks which are home to roosting birds, making it more difficult to remove part of them.
Ms Hemmings said the club was right behind the push to dredge part of the Broadwater for a sailing arena.
“Dredging would be great and allow more national and international sailing events here plus larger yacht races. It would also allow bigger boats to come in instead of having to go to Brisbane,” she said.
“The America’s Cup racing would bring massive publicity to the Gold Coast for sailing.”
Potential new members can take advantage of a new membership deal up to October 1, ahead of the birthday celebrations.
The club is offering discounted memberships — which last until April next year — at a reduced rate of $99. The normal year-long club fee is $230.